“Hi, I’m Jonas Lundgren, I thought I would come and introduce myself.”
“My pleasure.”
“Mr. Mudd showed my granddaughter the studio the other day, I thought I’d…
Mother interrupted Jonas mid-sentence. “Are you interested in the music
business?”
“You might say so.”
“Let me show you around.”
“If you have time – I would really appreciate it.”
Mother showed Jonas the studio. He was flabbergasted, (his own word) with all the different equipment which now existed in the studio. He told Mother he had done a bit of recording many years ago and he kept up with the new digital recording techniques by reading some of the many magazines available.
“This is really something,” he said, “but I’ve taken up too much of your valuable time, I should go.”
Mother, could tell he didn’t want to leave. Something in his voice and mannerism told Mother to say, “let me play a song I’m working on. I’d like your opinion.”
“My opinion would be from the old blues music I used to work on.”
“Good, the song is 12 bar blues. Mostly guitar work, some horn lines and harp.”
Mother, played the song. He looked over at Jonas who was snapping his fingers, bobbing his head and shuffling his feet. When the song was done playing, Mother asked what he thought.
“I like it; I like it a lot,” Jonas said. “Would you like some constructive criticism? It would come from my stand point or the way I hear the music so it may not fit what you’re looking for.”
“Please, I would love to hear what you think.”
“You asked for it.”
Two hours later the song Mother had played for Jonas sounded the same, yet in no way, was the same. Hard to explain but when they were listening back to the upgraded version Mother found himself snapping his fingers, bobbing his head and shuffling his feet.
“Incredible,” Mother exclaimed to Jonas, “what a difference your suggestions have made. Do you have some time to rework a few other songs over the next few days?”
“I do. Today I’m tied up with some boring work.”
“I’ll look for you tomorrow; maybe we can have lunch.”
“Looking forward.”
What a find, Mother, thought to himself.
Jonas, has a flair for the little things. Mother, continued to work but couldn’t get Jonas off his mind. He definitely was a professional. He knew the vernacular of the studio and his insight was awesome. He wondered where and what he used to do?
Quite a bit of work got done even without Mudd. Mother, wondered what he was up to this day? Wondered why he was in high gear this morning? Wondered if it was something he did? He would ask him as soon as he caught up with the rascal.
Mother’s cell phone was vibrating…it was a text message from Noodles. All it said was call me. “Call me now!” He went directly to his office and called.
Noodles, started to fill Mother in. “You won’t believe what I’m gonna tell you, I really feel like I let you and Chateau 54, down.”
“Don’t worry, just give me the facts I won’t believe.”
“All right here goes. First, we all feel we screwed up big time. Thinking a resume for a retirement home should be an easy check. Now as I look at it I realize it was too perfect, way too clean. There were no stumbles in the life of, Gerald. No divorces, no bankruptcies, no late payments ever, no minor or major law suits…nothing which would seem normal. I have personally never encountered a perfect record unless it was for a short time period.
“We have run a deeper search, there was tampering in the main frame of the system. We should have been alerted to wrong doings. Definitively a professional hack job. Big bucks!
“Gerald, is a complete phony. He was never on the stage or acted in any movies. The only acting he has done is at Chateau 54. He apparently was born in Romania, I say apparently because we are checking with a few agencies in Europe. Once we get the information you will know. Watch your back; he is dangerous. Some things we have discovered link him with murder. All is not yet verified. More to come. I wouldn’t confront him before running this by the ears of Solly.”
“When will you have the complete package with all the information, Noodles?”
“Sometime today. We have put a high priority on all of this. Wait a minute, I’m getting a fax as we speak.” Mother impatiently waited for a few minutes for Noodles.
“Gerald, spent time in jail when he lived in France. Something about running a black-market operation somewhere in the eastern bloc; Romania, Hungry and Yugoslavia and a list of other countries. More stuff coming in. Let me sort it out, I’ll get back as soon as I get it all together. If I feel something is a red flag I will call sooner.”
Mother, took a deep breath. He went to see Solly. Mother motioned to him as he passed. A few minutes later he came by Mother’s table, filled his glass with water, told him to order lunch, and he would get back as the room emptied. Mother noticed, Gerald, having lunch on the other side of the room.
“Make sure Gerald is gone before you come back,” he told, Solly.
“Can you see me in my office when you’re done with lunch?”
“Sure, no problem.”
As he was finishing his coffee, Gerald got up to leave. He looked over and gave Mother a short wave.
Mother acknowledged, he thought Gerald looked tired but he played his part well. After waiting a short minute, Mother went directly to Solly’s office. He repeated all the information Noodles had passed.
Some of the information Solly had heard while he was in the Newark office. The black market and jail time however was new to him. “If you talk to Noodles before I do ask him to call.”
“I will. Do you want me to sit on the information or are you ready to act?”
“Sit on it, please, for your own safety. The man is a killer.”
“Say no more, I’ll keep it under the hat I don’t wear.”
“We’re trying to keep all the action out of Chateau 54.”
“Good to know.”
Mother headed to his office. The light on the landline was flashing. Noodles had called. Mother called back.
“Listen up, this guy is dangerous, you need to be careful. I’m stressing, be careful, very, very careful. Do you get my drift?” Noodles explained.
“Yes, I get it.”
“Do not antagonize this man in any way.”
“But I need…” the phone went dead.
This is not good. How could we have hired Gerald?
At the moment tension galore seemed like an appropriate phrase to explain the feeling at Chateau 54.
M&M needed to get started on the recording sessions. Mother decided some traffic at the chateau would make him feel safer. Therefore, he would setup two recording sessions with a full complement of musicians.
He would check the studio and make sure everything was in working order. Mother would do a comprehensive test on all the microphones and cables. Then set a date to record according to the availability of the musicians.
Mother, would first call Duke in order work around his schedule. He was a quick study with Hollywood experience. Duke–Dash, as he is known in the inner circle of the music business, will fit this project perfectly.
As Mother was about to make some phone calls there came a knock on the door.
“Who’s there?” before he answered, Solly walked in locking the door behind him. “Is somebody after you?” Mother asked.
“No, Noodles phoned, after what he told me, we have to talk.”
“Noodles already told me about Gerald. Why don’t you arrest him?”
“There aren’t any outstanding warrant’s or anything to connect him with what’s going on around here.”
“The way I understand,” Mother continued, “he’s a big-time crook.”
“It looks so on paper but there are no pending charges
out there.
When they sort through it all there may be something which will make an arrest possible.”
“He’s still gonna work here, so we have to watch our own backs?”
“Pretty much.”
Solly proceeded to fill Mother in on a few things Noodles had previously left out. They weren’t very reassuring. Gerald has been around the block more then once. “His connections, and they are really good, have always been able to make him disappear before the authorities had a chance to move against him. Sometimes they’d make the charges vanish completely.
“The man has luck on his side and plenty of money to back it up. Be careful, vigilant and don’t antagonize him. Continue a normal schedule and let us do the dirty work. Make sure Mudd is on the same page. In fact, let’s meet.”
“I’ll have the schedule for the first session tomorrow,” Mother said.
“By the way Jonas Lundberg asked if he could help you with some of the music
production.”
“And?”
“Not a problem as long as he has time to get some work done for me.”
“He’ll be right here at the chateau.”
“Good, let me know when you and Mudd, are ready to meet with me.”
“Thanks, Solly.”
Mother decided the studio would be the best place to make the phone calls. It would put him in a better frame of mind. Mother enjoyed the quiet of an empty studio. Everything made for the studio was made quiet. The computer fans were rated quiet. The air conditioning ducts were made of a thicker gauge metal which would minimize noise. The floor was made of teak wood. The ceiling and walls had 6 inches plus of insulation all around for a quiet atmosphere. Parts of the wall had a colorful burlap covering and other sections had soft absorbing wood set at different angles. The double window’s separating the studio proper from the control room were set at an angle to help keep the sound from bouncing around. Everything had a quiet factor. All in all, a peaceful area. Mother stopped his musing and returned to the work at hand.
The first call went to Duke.
“Yo!”
“Duke, Mother.
“Hey, Mother, was happnin?
“All good stuff, you?
“Same here.”
“Duke, are you very busy at the moment?
“Not at this moment. Do you have a particular moment in mind?”
“Yeah! I need an arranger and studio piano man. You available?”
“I could be. What’s it all about?”
“Some friends are making a movie, Mudd and I have been writing the score to include a few songs for the picture. We’re getting ready to record and need an arranger. There’s money involved.”
“When do I have to be there, where is it and how much money is involved?”
“Three days from now, around eleven in the morning. The studio is the one you visited a few months back at, Chateau 54. The session starts at one in the afternoon and is scheduled for four hours,” Mother explained to Duke. “After we have a look at the charts we can have lunch and talk money.
“Say no more, I’m packing as we speak.”
“I will send copies of the songs via email. Oh, also if you have any suggestions for musicians, let me know. I will be calling and setting up the guys this evening. Some may not be available on such short notice.”
“Ait, talk to you.”
The main spoke in the wheel was set. Mother now started calling the session players. He was feeling more upbeat as the early evening progressed. Some of the guys he hadn’t talked to for years. After two hours of calling he still needed a guitar player, a rhythm guitar man and a percussionist. A thought came to Mother, Bobbie Robbins, she is a terrific acoustic guitar lady. He called her. She took the job. A call back to Duke, was in order.
“Yo!”
“Mother here. I’m still in need of a percussionist. What can you do?”
“Will call you back shortly,”
Duke was a man of action and few words.
The phone rang. It was Duke, with a name from the past. He was able to make the session. It was a lock.
Mother smiled - the session was ready to go! He would sleep like a baby!
Belle entered the kitchen and found Jonas sitting at the table. The kitchen was small but functional. It looked to Belle as if Jonas was working on a list of places.
“Anything I can help with,” she asked.
“As a matter of fact, I was just about to ask for some. This is a list of places where I lived while I was keeping myself hidden. I’m trying to figure out where the case I traveled with was left. Trying to jog my memory by going over all the spots; so far it hasn’t helped.”
“Let me see the list and I’ll ask you questions as they come to mind.”
“Shoot.”
Belle asked pertinent questions as the two of them spent the better part of two hours trying to get to the place where Jonas may have parted with the case. There were some possibilities but nothing gave Jonas the feeling he was looking for. They called it a night and would try again in the morning.
Jonas slid across the seat and slowly stood up, grabbing the edge of the counter as his feet swung around the table. Suddenly his arm slipped from the edge of the counter and knocked over a can of coffee beans. “Oops! Guess I spilled the beans!” he mused.
Jonas and Belle had a good night’s sleep. Belle was first to rise. She went straight to the kitchen to pick up the coffee beans with the very quiet built in vacuum cleaner. She then found some eggs and potatoes and started to come up with a breakfast menu. Belle put on the coffee pot. The smell woke Jonas who felt completely refreshed. His first thought was of the studio and the chance to get back doing what he loved, music. He had the urge to write a song but first he headed to the kitchen for a mug of coffee. Everything smelled wonderful as he entered the kitchen. “Boy! Am I hungry.”
“You better be because there’s lots to eat; what kind of toast would you like? White or rye?”
“Rye.”
After eating Jonas suggested they fill their coffee cups and spend some time with the list? I feel really good this morning, maybe something will come to me.”
“I’ll get the coffee, you get the list,” the fake Belle replied.
They spent the next hour reading over the list, Belle asked Jonas questions she felt were unanswered on the list. Suddenly his voice shot up in pitch and volume.
“I think this place may be a possible spot!” he said. They went over all the facts and sure enough it made sense.
“You sound so happy and upbeat this morning,” Belle said.
“Well I can attribute it to two things. First your visit and secondly, something I haven’t told you yet, the studio.”
“Have you been to the studio?”
“As a matter of fact, I was there yesterday afternoon. I met Mother, he showed me around and played a song he and Mudd had written. It was a blues song, very good actually. He asked for my opinion, I told him I would give it, but he didn’t have to use anything if he didn’t want to.”
“And?”
“He actually spent the next two hours making all the changes I suggested. When he changed the bass line I think he was as excited as I was, maybe more. He wants to have lunch with me today and asked me if I would consider helping with some more material.”
“And you said?”
“I said I would love to work with him and Mudd.”
“Tell me, what kind of changes did you suggest?”
“I’m from an old school of R&B music, so I made my suggestions accordingly. Mother is quite a guy, with lots of gold records as an engineer. I’m really excited. I hope you’ll be staying on for a while.”
“I plan to, I surly do,” the fake Belle said in her very best drawl.
TwentyOne — Santana and the Lady on the Beast
Jewel is making a call to Gerald to inform him
she has gathered all the people needed. Jewel thought about the outcome, which she thinks favors the two of them. She pictures herself in a large villa on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean and imagines having men serve all her wishes. She could see no other ending. Jewel had thoughts of owning all the diamonds but would be careful not to let it get in her way and act only if the situation was heavily in her favor.
Gerald was more conservative in his thinking. He also thought they would win because of his fastidious and meticulous work habits. He was an I-man. I can do it, I am the best, I make it happen, I will prevail! He had a good feeling about the diamonds and the fact he would get them; get them all. Gerald thought Jewel might betray him. He was ready to not let it happen.
Gerald had set his alarm for an early rise. His plans included a half day at Chateau 54 and a meeting with Jewel. He had sent her a message, there was a possibility of three places of interest which would make it necessary to hire two more men. He showered and shaved, made a light breakfast of seeds and honey. He ate while thinking about his plans, something he did each morning. He was a man of conviction, it was something which has helped him survive. Gerald, never kept written records. His memory, although not 100 percent recall, never failed him.
Only once was he caught with the stash and jailed for a few days before his connections broke him out. He had to hide over 12 months. This cost him a great deal of money which he had plenty of but he was unable to strategize new plans which upset him the most. He was an avid reader, especially military books. He went into each job using military thinking. He would do a complete reconnaissance of his target. This included going over in his mind how he saw the plan unfold, checking every aspect of the place to be attacked and double checking his opposition. Gerald’s mind also gave thought to minor problems which could cause conflict. With all these things tirelessly worked out, it made him a problematic and illusive foe; he knew it!
Gerald answered his phone. It was Jewel. He let her know they needed to meet. He would need two more men and would bring the needed money with him. They would meet at a local coffee house where they had met before; over a year ago. He would never meet in the same place twice unless six months had passed.